Buying and renovating a home in a different country is a decision that would put any relationship to the test. But this couple, previously based in San Jose, California, snapped up a dilapidated house in a picturesque Italian town with the hope of saving their marriage.

Christina and Pete Sobolev, both in their 60s, bought a ruin in the hilltop village of Santa Domenica Talao, in Calabria, a southern Italian region filled with depopulated towns, in 2011 after seeing an online advertisement. Now the couple, who’ve been married for 35 years, are working together to help revive dying Italian villages by bringing in new residents who want to live La Dolce Vita.